Director of Whitaker's Imax film on Chesapeake Bay watershed visits area

View full sizeCanadian filmmaker David Lickley is the director "Expedition Chesapeake," a 3D Imax movie that is being produced by Harrisburg's Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts. Lickley, who was in Harrisburg on Wednesday to meet with Whitaker officials, hopes to begin filming the documentary next year, with a premiere showing at Whitaker in late 2013 or early 2014. CHRISTINE BAKER, The Patriot-News

Water keeps getting in the way of Whitaker Center’s Expedition Chesapeake project. Canadian film director David Lickley was in Harrisburg on Wednesday to scout locations along the Susquehanna River for Whitaker’s upcoming 3-D Imax film about the vast Chesapeake Bay watershed. He got rained out, a common scenario in central Pennsylvania during what has been the wettest year on record.

But Lickley, whose large-format film credits include “Shooting Star” and “Gold Fever,” said he’s still looking forward to telling the story of the bay and its watershed, which is among the largest in the world. “I travel the world making movies, but sometimes you miss a story that is right in your own back yard,” he said. “This is one of those stories. There is a treasure trove of people and places we are going to incorporate in this film.”

In late September, a promotional kayak trip on the river with celebrity biologist and film narrator Jeff Corwin likewise was washed away in the wake of historic flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. “This seems to be a film truly about water,” Dauphin County Commissioner Jeff Haste said Wednesday during a news conference at the riverfront Fort Hunter Mansion in Susquehanna Twp.

The county gave Whitaker a $1 million grant from gaming funds to help the downtown Harrisburg arts and science center fund its $10 million Expedition Chesapeake project, which also includes online educational components and planned television documentaries. In return, Haste said, the county stands to receive 25 percent of Whitaker’s revenue for the project. “It’s the first time using game dollars where we’ve been able to invest rather than just contribute,” he said.

Lickley plans to spend about $6 million making a 42-minute film, narrated by Corwin, that will focus on the environmental challenges facing the watershed, which is home to 17 million people and stretches across more than 64,000 square miles in Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Among the watershed’s major tributaries is the Susquehanna, which flows about 450 miles to the bay from its headwaters at Otsego Lake in New York State. The river, which flows past Harrisburg about two blocks from Whitaker, will play a major role in the movie, Lickley said.

Director David Lickley talks about his new film Expedition ChesapeakeCanadian filmmaker David Lickley is the director "Expedition Chesapeake," a 3D Imax movie that is being produced by Harrisburg's Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts. Lickley, who was in Harrisburg on Wednesday talks with Patriot-News Arts Writer David N. Dunkle, hopes to begin filming the documentary next year, with a premiere showing at Whitaker in late 2013 or early 2014. Video by: Christine Baker, The Patriot-News

Whitaker is still seeking financial support for the project from donors that include corporations and foundations, according to Steve Bishop, vice president for science and Imax programs at Whitaker.

Bishop said Whitaker is joining a small group of science centers that have produced Imax films, a group that includes the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas and the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.

Lickley said he hopes to film over a period of 12 to 15 months starting next summer. He will use new digital equipment that is much smaller and lighter than traditional Imax and 3D film cameras, which he said will be a big help when filming in bird sanctuaries and underwater. “The old cameras weighed 300 pounds, gave you three minutes of film and then took 20 minutes to reload,” he said. “We are at a real crossroads in Imax technology. We are entering the digital age. Some of the equipment we will be using has never been used before.”

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